At right Knox County School Board member Tony Norman of District 3, speaks about the potential to limit the public forum portion of meetings to one hour with three minutes per speaker, at the City County Building Wednesday, June 13, 2018. A substitute motion was approved, but would not limit the total time or time per speaker during the public forum section.(Photo: Caitie McMekin/News Sentinel)

The Knox County Board of Education unanimously approved sending a letter expressing a "lack of confidence" to Gov. Bill Haslam, state legislators and the Tennessee Department of Education in a special-called meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

In a meeting that ran just under an hour at the district's central office in the Andrew Johnson Building, board members debated the pros and cons of wording the letter with a slightly weaker tone than originally intended.

At the center of the board's frustrations are how the state has handled the portfolio evaluation process for pre-K and kindergarten teachers and how the state Department of Education, from the board's vantage point, routinely evades responsibility when its efforts fail.

The board's grievances include the assertion that standards featured in the portfolios are inappropriate for young children and the platform through which the portfolios are uploaded and processed has continually changed – three times in the past three years.

Board members are calling for the state to put a moratorium on the system.

The superintendents of the state's two largest districts, Metro Nashville Public Schools and Shelby County Schools, last week penned their own letters to Gov. Haslam and Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen taking a stance of "no confidence" in TNReady after a slew of problems. The superintendents are taking it a step further, calling for a pause on testing.

McQueen responded on Monday with a letter defending state testing, citing that "both state and federal law require an annual statewide assessment" and that doing away with testing for an academic year would be illegal and conflict with the state's values.

However, McQueen also acknowledged that the state needs to improve how it administers TNReady.

Though Knox County Schools isn't the first district to vocalize concerns with state officials, it is blazing a trail by publicizing board-level concerns.

"I do think we would be charting new ground as a board of education to send the letter," Fugate said.

'No confidence' or 'lack of confidence'

Fugate was the first to insist she would not support a board letter detailing no confidence in the governor, legislators or the state, noting "I think that's very strong language."

Fugate continued, explaining that in an evaluation in which 80 percent of participants don't have a problem, she has a hard time being a staunch critic and supporting the idea it's terribly flawed.

Knox County School superintendent Bob Thomas talks with board member Lynne Fugate before the start of the meeting to vote on the 2018-2109 school budget on Monday, April 30, 2018. (Photo: Saul Young/News Sentinel)

Others like McMillan and board member Tony Norman raised the question of what the board hopes to accomplish with the letter.

Michael McMillan(Photo: Efird, Paul)

McMillan pointed out that within the next few months a new governor will be elected, some new legislators will be in place and a new Commissioner of Education will likely be appointed and the recipients of the board's letter essentially function as lame-duck officials.

Norman asked how the board will get the state to make any concrete changes, convinced state officials will plow forward with their own decisions.

He posed the question of whether anything can change for affected teachers this year, stating he, himself, doesn't know.

But other board members like Jennifer Owen were unwavering in wanting to confront the state about perceived shortcomings, fed up after a streak of disappointments with the state.

Tony Norman (Photo: Michael Patrick/News Sentinel)

Owen said she has much more than a lack of confidence in the department in light of repeated failures and the refusal to accept responsibility for them.

Owen rattled off a list of Department of Education faults surrounding pre-K and kindergarten teacher portfolios, including that educators have no idea what evidence they're supposed to be collecting, they have no idea how the new system is going to work, they haven't been trained it it and some haven't even been aware that a new system was going to be implemented.

She also said the state has neglected to inform teachers what their expectations are, even as kids have returned to the classroom.

Jennifer Owen(Photo: Paul Efird/News Sentinel)

Additionally, board members weighed the value of sending lighter language to the state with unanimous board support against the value of sending harsher language that may not carry the support of all nine board members.

Some members, including McMillan, Norman and Susan Horn noted that a letter backed by all board members will send a louder message to the state.

And while part of the board wasn't worried about the shift in language from "no confidence" to a "lack of confidence" changing the letter or watering it down dramatically, Owen in particular was concerned backing down would affect how much teachers feel supported by the district.

Questioning McQueen

Other comments were directed at McQueen.

Owen objected to McQueen's statement that pausing a state assessment would be inconsistent with the state's values, saying instead that being fair would be consistent with state values.

Vice Chairwoman Amber Rountree pressed for McQueen to be held accountable as she pushes for accountability within schools across the state and also said she finds it interesting that the commissioner believes the assessments are so important and yet the state is scrubbing all the information.

Knox County school board members Tony Norman and Amber Rountree gather for the start of the meeting to vote on the 2018-2019 school budget on Monday, April 30, 2018. (Photo: Saul Young/News Sentinel)

Following the board's decision last week to send a letter to the state, McQueen responded with an email that, in part, explained how the state will re-review teachers' collections in certain cases. If a district believes any of its teachers wrongly have a submission error on their portfolio, the district can request to have it re-reviewed.

Knox County Schools Superintendent Bob Thomas said McQueen reached out to him Monday as well as a couple of times before the start of the week and said he'll take part in a meeting of district directors on Friday.

Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen visits Whittle Springs Middle School on Friday, Oct. 20, 2017. Whittle Springs is one of seven schools in Knox County and 169 around the state to be named "Reward Schools," a designation reserved for the top 10 percent of schools in performance or improvement on standardized tests.(Photo: Submitted)

Part of McQueen's message to him conveyed that the state department is willing to listen and make the right adjustments, Thomas said.

Other districts stand with state tests

Separately from Knox County Schools Board of Education meeting, a group of directors from other area school districts issued a letter on Tuesday reflecting support for statewide assessment.

The letter was signed by leaders from Maryville City Schools, Alcoa City Schools, Sevier County Schools, Johnson City Schools, Dyersburg City Schools, Loudon County Schools, Clinton City Schools, Marshall County Schools, McKenzie Special School District, Trousdale County Schools and Lenoir City Schools.

Leaders of the districts acknowledged the legitimacy behind student, parent and teacher frustration with the hiccups and errors experienced during the most recent round of TNReady tests.

"However, it is important that we, as leaders, step up to say that now is the time to press on and continue the important work of improving the overall education for all Tennessee students," they wrote.

The education chiefs have an optimistic outlook for the future of education in the state.

"Our students now have the opportunity to be more fully prepared and competitive to enter college and the workforce," their letter stated. "This is not the time to press the pause button."